"Pretty shocking"

Both of my sons were born at Wexham Park. With my first son, I arrived at the labour ward in heavy labour. I was kept waiting in the corridor outside as no-one was ready to see me. I was in lots of pain, screaming, bearing down and fighting the urge to push. It still took 15 minutes for anyone to see me. (They were then surprised to find I was fully dilated.) The following morning, I was very worried as my baby had unexpectedly been born with low birth weight. The midwife on duty saw I was crying (very quietly), so she drew the curtains around me, and told me sternly that I had to pull myself together or she'd take my baby away. We didn't want to go back there with our second child, but as it was convenient, we persuaded ourselves that the previous time had been a one-off. This time I ended up on the ward for pregnant women who weren't yet in labour. However I was already going into labour when I arrived on this ward. Despite my husband and I asking repeatedly for attention as I was in more and more pain, we were ignored for several hours. When the midwife on duty finally came to examine me, she was very surly and told me that she was very busy and I had to try to help her out. But once she examined me, she looked panicked, told me I was going to have the baby any minute, and asked me not to push until I was transferred to the labour ward as it would cause 'lots of paperwork'. To be fair, the doctors and several other of the midwives who treated me were kind, reassuring and very capable. But I will never ever return to this maternity ward again. If you do use it, be prepared to make a huge effort to get the attention you need.